


ocean boy

by ewagan



Series: Sportsfest 2018 [15]
Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 17:33:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15296532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewagan/pseuds/ewagan
Summary: Nanase Haruka is a salt and water boy, raised on the fringes of the ocean.





	ocean boy

**Author's Note:**

> here is what the boy said to the sea:  
> take my life, but do not take  
> my love from me.  
> and the sea remembered.  
> \- e.c. on tumblr
> 
> prompt [here](https://sportsfest.dreamwidth.org/8539.html?thread=1046107#cmt1046107)

Nanase Haruka is a salt and water boy, raised on the fringes of the ocean. He learned to swim almost as soon as he could walk, or perhaps he never really forgot. He is a boy with the ocean in his veins, a water boy who never quite learned to be at home on land.

Rin was the first person to make him feel like he belonged here, on land. Later, he would call this feeling love, call it home. Rin, who kept losing things to the water, whom Haru could never quite understand. But he held his hand out and waited for Haru to take it, and pulled him into a world he’d never seen before. He tells Haru about his dreams, the future he wants, how far they will take him from this seaside town they both come from.

 _Come with me, Haru. I want you to see this dream too._ So he goes too, learns to dream his own dreams, dreams that are more than the taste of salt in the air and the ocean in his bones. They part ways for a while to chase these dreams, but each step is a step closer to each other, to all these dreams he’s learned to want, to all these things he wanted to make real.

When Rin is done dreaming, having caught them in his hand, they go back to the sleepy town they came from. He tells Haru he is still dreaming, but the dreams are simpler. A house, he says, a space for the two of them. _Home,_ he says. He holds his hand out again, and Haru takes it.

Rin returns to the ocean, now atop a boat and no fear in him. He has come home, and he thinks the water here will not harm him. Haru knows differently; the ocean will take what it believes it’s due. They also say you cannot bargain with the ocean, it is cold and cruel, it knows no mercy. But Haru knows better, standing knee deep in the water he’s always called home more than any place he’s known, except for when he’d been standing next to Rin. The ocean will give you anything, if you ask, if you can pay its price.

Nanase Haruka is a salt and water boy, one who has breathed the ocean in to his lungs. He supposes it shouldn’t be so strange that he returns to it, in the end. The water is warm, it is alive and waiting for him, waiting to welcome him back.

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments and kudos appreciated. <3 you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ewagan)


End file.
